Space Science Division

"Synthetic Spectra of Extrasolar Planets with the NAI's Virtual Planetary laboratory"
Dr. Victoria Meadows
Spitzer Science Center/Caltech
Wednesday, July 20, 2005 4:00 PM
Building 245 Main Auditorium

The Mars Analog Research and Technology Experiment (MARTE): a Mars Analog Drilling Project to Search for Subsurface Life on the Rio Tinto has been selected for funding in the first round of the Astrobiology Science and Technology Experiments (ASTEP) program. Planetary scientist Dr. Carol Stoker will be the principal investigator of the project, which will be funded at a level of $3M over 3 years. The project represents a collaboration between NASA Ames Research Center, NASA Johnson Space Center, and Centro de Astrobiologia, Spain. Additional participants include researchers from the University of Oklahoma, Portland State University, and SETI Institute. The focus of the project is to perform a field experiment near the source waters of the Rio Tinto, a river in southern Spain, to simulate a drilling mission to search for subsurface life on Mars. The field site was chosen based on the potential to yield new insight into the subsurface biosphere on Earth and represents an important analog environment for searching for life on Mars. The project will also demonstrate an important new drilling technology being developed at NASA Johnson Space Center in collaboration with Baker-Hughes Corp. Additionally, the experiment will demonstrate instruments designed to detect extant life on Mars in situ, while also characterizing the subsurface biosphere in the Rio Tinto.

On October 3, 2002, UC Santa Cruz held a workshop to discuss the National Science Foundation's program to explore the numerous subglacial lakes in the antarctic. Of particular interest was Lake Vostok, the largest of the lakes in the antarctic. Planetary scientist Dr. Christopher McKay demonstrated how exploring the astrobiology of Lake Vostok would have close parallels with exploring the astrobiology of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. Space scientist Dr. Donald DeVincenzi showed how planetary protection guidelines for Europa could play a key role in defining non-contaminating conditions under which the subglacial lakes can be sampled for biology.

On October 3-4, 2002, Dr Jeffrey Scargle chaired the Space Science Data Understanding Workshop held at NASA Ames Research Center. This workshop was a follow-on to the annual PI meeting of the Applied Information Systems Research Program (AISRP) hosted by Ames Research Center on October 1-3, 2002. The goal of the workshop was to identify future space science/information technology collaboration areas. Discussions focused on SOFIA/SIRTF, Mars exploration, planetary detection, astrobiology, and astrophysics.

Exobiologists David Des Marais, Brad Bebout, Kendra Turk and Victoria Orphan participated in team-teaching a course entitled, Geobiology: An Intensive Training Course In A Rapidly Evolving Field. The six-week course, held on Catalina Island July 6 - August 16, 2002 at the USC Wrigley Marine Science Center, was offered by USC Wrigley Institute and sponsored by the Agouron Institute.

The Ames Exobiology group taught for one week in a classroom/laboratory environment and introduced the students to techniques necessary for making measurements of rates of biogeochemical processes in benthic microbial communities. These techniques included: gas chromatography, flow injection analysis, microelectrode measurements, and fluorescence in situ hybridization.

Dr. Christopher McKay of the Planetary Systems Branch and researchers from other institutions have created the first "coupled" model, linking Titan's organic haze with atmospheric winds and with the sunlight that heats the haze. According to the group's model, sunlight heats the haze that drives the wind, which, in turn, carries the haze. The smallest haze particles can be carried from one pole to the other within one Titan season (4 Earth years). "We found that the main features of Titan's organic haze arise from a strong feedback loop between the haze, the sunlight and the wind," said McKay. "This is a critical new factor in understanding Titan." With a thick, nitrogen-dominated atmosphere, similar to Earth's, scientists hope that new information about Titan's atmosphere can shed light on the chemical processes that may have created life on Earth.

SS personnel honored.

On July 10, 2002 Dr. David J. Hollenbach, Dr. Andrzej Pohorille, and the Ames Astrochemistry Laboratory Group were honored at the 2002 NASA Honor Awards Ceremony. Dr. Hollenbach received the Outstanding Leadership Medal for outstanding leadership both as Principal Investigator of the internationally renowned Center for Star Formation Studies (CSFS) and as Executive Officer for the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Pohorille received the Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for outstanding research accomplishments in the application of high performance computing and computer science to studies of the origin and evolution of life. The Ames Astrochemistry Laboratory Group received the Group Achievement Award for exceptional performance in the laboratory simulation of materials in deep interstellar space, on comets and planets which revolutionized the understanding of chemistry in space.

Nathalie Cabrol selected as a participating scientist.

Dr. Nathalie Cabrol, of the Planetary Systems Branch, has been selected as a 2003 Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Participating Scientist. Her proposal, entitled "Aqueous Sedimentary Processes at the MER Sites", has been selected by NASA for a four year project. Planetary scientist Dr. Edmond Grin will also be assisting with the project. They will be studying the traces left by water activity at the MER landing sites and wherever else the rovers go.

NASA Facts Sheet for the MER.

Mark Marley presents research on Brown Dwarfs.

Planetary scientist Dr. Mark Marley presented his team's research on Brown Dwarfs at the International Astronomical Union's Symposium on Brown Dwarfs in Hawaii on May 23, 2002. Dr. Marley and a team of scientists from NASA and the University of California, Los Angeles have discovered cloudy, stormy atmospheres on brown dwarfs, celestial bodies that are less massive than stars but have more mass than giant planets like Jupiter. The discovery will give scientists better tools for interpreting atmospheres and weather on brown dwarfs and planets around other stars. Image (created by Robert Hurt): An artist's rendition shows the relative sizes and likely appearance from left to right of the sun, a very cool star, a warm brown dwarf, a cooler brown dwarf, and finally Jupiter.

Read their Astrophysical Journal article.

Farid Salama chairs NASA Laboratory Astrophysics Workshop.

Astrophysicist Dr. Farid Salama chaired NASA's Office of Space Science (OSS) sponsored workshop on Laboratory Astrophysics on May 1-3, 2002 at NASA Ames Research Center. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the current state of knowledge in this interdisciplinary field and to assess the needs in regards to NASA's space missions. The workshop featured invited talks by members of the scientific community representing data users. The invited speakers provided a broad overview of the needs in the field. The workshop also featured shorter talks and posters by data producers (NASA's Space Science programs grantees and others). Breakout sessions chaired by the Scientific Organizing Committee members produced a report on the status of the Laboratory Astrophysics programs supported by NASA and whether these programs meet NASA's needs for the future.

NASA Laboratory Astrophysics Workshop website.

David Hollenbach nominated for the CAA.

Planetary scientist Dr. David Hollenbach has been nominated to be a member of the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics (CAA), a sub-committee of the NAS/NRC Space Studies Board. The CAA examines the status of space- and ground-based astronomy and astrophysics and provides assessments to NASA, the National Science Foundation, and other institutions as a joint committee of the Board on Physics and Astronomy and the Space Studies Board. The overall objective of the committee is to encourage progress in astronomy and astrophysics and to assist the federal government in planning programs in these fields. Dr. Hollenbach is the principal investigator and director of the Center for Star Formation Studies which brings together experts in the fields of star and planet formation. The key participants in the Center are from NASA Ames Research Center, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. Dr. Hollenbach recently served as the executive director of the Decadal Report on Astronomy and Astrophysics, which is also directed by the NAS/NRC.

Astrobiology Explorer selected for feasibility study.
NASA has selected the Astrobiology Explorer (ABE), a cryogenic telescope to determine the abundance, distribution and identities of the chemical building blocks of life, as a candidate for the next mission in the agency's Explorer Program. ABE, led by astrophysicist Dr. Scott Sandford, has been judged by NASA as one of 42 mission proposals that have the best science value. Dr. Sandford will receive $450,000 to conduct a four-month implementation feasibility study. NASA intends to select two mission proposals by early 2003 for full development as Medium-class Explorer flights.

For more information on ABE.
For more information on NASA's Explorer Program.

David DesMarais receives honorary title.

David DesMarais, of the Exobiology Branch, has been selected to become a Geochemistry Fellow by the European Association of Geochemistry and the Geochemical Society. This honorary title is presented to scientists who have made a major contribution to the field of geochemistry. Dr. DesMarais will be recognized during an awards ceremony at the Goldschmidt Conferences which will be held in Davos, Switzerland on August 18-23, 2002.

Lance Delzeit reveals groundbreaking inventions.

Lance Delzeit, of the Exobiology Branch, has developed a technique that allows for the deposition and patterning of a catalyst onto a surface for the growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes. This technique uses direct deposition of metal catalyst onto a support surface. It has proven to be an effective way of producing single- and multi-walled carbon nanotubes within a confined area. By modifying the formula of the catalyst being deposited, the density and type of nanotubes can also be controlled. This technique has also proven to be nearly independent of the support material and avoids many of the problems associated with trying to restrain the placement of liquid based catalysts to a limited area. Masking techniques are applicable to this process, and have been used to show its application in the development of nano-devices.

He has also developed an environmentally compatible method to purify carbon nanotubes of amporphous carbon and metal contamination. This cleaning can be done immediately following the growth process or as a post processing procedure. The major benefits of this method are that it is environmentally friendly and does not require any special handling, equipment, or post scrubbing for the exhaust before release into the environment. It is also specifically reactive to the amphorous carbon without damaging the carbon nanotubes.

Canadian meteorite provides insight into evolution.

The Tagish Lake meteorite fell last year on a frozen lake in Canada and may provide the most pristine material of its kind. Analyses by a diverse group of scientists, including exobiologist George Cooper, have now shown this carbonaceous chondrite to contain a suite of soluble organic compounds (~100 parts per million) that includes mono- and dicarboxylic acids, dicarboximides, pyridine carboxylic acids, a sulfonic acid, and both aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. The insoluble carbon exhibits predominately aromatic character, deuterium enrichment, and fullerenes containing "planetary" helium and argon. The findings provide insight into an outcome of early solar chemical evolution that differs from any seen so far in meteorites.

Read the article featured in Science magazin (PDF, 161K)

Studying Saturn's mysterious rings.

Planetary scientist Jeff Cuzzi is on a mission to unravel the mysteries of Saturn's rings. There have been many theories about the origin of the rings, but because they have evolved substantially since their origin, nobody has been able to say for sure when or how they originated. New data will help solve this 300 year old puzzle. NASA's Cassini spacecraft will reach Saturn in 2004 and measure many different aspects of ring structure and composition. This could lead to groundbreaking discoveries about the origin of the rings.

Astrobiologists create chemicals key to life.

Scientists in the Space Science Division have created amino acids critical for life in an environment that mimics deep space. Dr. Max Bernstein says, "This finding may shed light on the origin of life itself."

The amino acids that were produced in the lab are also similar to those found in carbon-rich meteorites. According to astrophysicist Jason Dworkin, "This finding suggests that Earth may have been seeded with amino acids from space in its earliest days." These new discoveries increase the odds that life also evolved in places other than Earth.

Read the article featured in Nature

Dale Cruikshank to chair a panel for Space Studies Board.
Dr. Dale Cruikshank, an astronomer and research scientist in the Astrophysics Branch, has been asked by the Space Studies Board to participate in a study on solar system exploration. The study, entitled "A New Science Strategy for Solar System Exploration", establishes science requirements and priorities and also provides a strategic "roadmap" for the implementation phase. Dr. Cruikshank will chair a panel called Primitive Bodies (Asteroids, Comets, Pluto/KBO, Small Icy Satellites) that will produce a report to appear as a chapter in the final document. This panel will meet three times in the next twelve months.

Center for Star Formation Studies hosted workshop at UC Santa Cruz.
The Center for Star Formation Studies hosted a weeklong workshop at UC Santa Cruz from July 14-19, 2001 entitled "Star Formation in the Galactic Context". This was an international meeting involving 125 participants. The director for The Center for Star Formation Studies is Planetary Systems Branch senior research scientist Dr. David Hollenbach. Full Details

Max Bernstein organized symposium on extraterrestrial organic chemistry.
In April 2001, Dr. Bernstein, an astrochemist in the Astrophysics Branch, organized a one day symposium on extraterrestrial organic chemistry at the 221st American Chemical Society Meeting in San Diego. Featured speakers included Ames scientists Dr. Jean Chiar and Dr. George Cooper. This symposium was featured in Science News and also Chemical and Engineering News. Abstracts can be viewed here.

Space Science Division Highlights, June 22, 2005

1) As of June 17, 2005, NASA ARC submitted as PI's 14 proposals to the NASA Interdisciplinary Exploration Science program requesting more than 20 million dollars over the next three years, with over 12 million requested from the Space Science Division. The proposals covered a wide range of topics between Earth and Space Science collaborations, and stimulated new areas of research for the collaborating teams. Two of the Space Science Division PIs are also managers at the Division level (Bernstein and Pendleton), as we move to a new management structure where research and science management coexist at both the Branch and Division levels.

2) Is Sedna another Triton? The most distant object in the Solar System is Sedna, a small planetesimal discovered in 2003. With an aphelion distance of 927 AU and a perihelion distance of 76 AU, Sedna is more than twice the distance from the Sun even at closest approach compared to Pluto. Dale Cruikshank and Cristina Dalle Ore (both in the Space Science and Astrobiology Division), working with a team of French and Italian colleagues (M. A. Barucci, PI) using ground based observations from the VLT in Chile, have found the spectral traces of frozen nitrogen and methane on Sedna. The presence of these ices on Sednaâ€™s surface makes it strikingly similar to Pluto and Neptuneâ€™s satellite Triton, although it is smaller than either of these bodies. Cruikshank and other colleagues found nitrogen, methane, and other ices on Pluto and Triton several years ago. The similarity suggests a common origin for all three of these bodies. Furthermore, dynamical evidence suggests Sedna may be an interloper somehow related to the Oort Cloud, which is the source region of the long-period comets thought to be located at least 50,000 AU from the Sun. The presence of frozen nitrogen on Sedna implies that there is a thin atmosphere of nitrogen gas surrounding the body, which likely forms during the approximately 200 years of its 10,500-year orbit when it is closest to the Sun (perihelion is in the year 2075). The presence of nitrogen suggests that Sedna, unlike modern comets, may be a remnant planetesimal of solar composition, which is the kind thought to have accreted to form the giant planets. Paper in press in Astronomy and Astrophysics: M. A. Barucci, D. P. Cruikshank, E. Dotto, F. Merlin, F. Poulet, C. Dalle Ore, S. Fornasier, and C. de Bergh. Is Sedna another Triton? Astronomy & Astrophysics 2005 (corrected manuscript returned to the journal on June 17, 2005)

3) Two bills being supported by California State Assembly passed from the Assembly Education Committee on June 22, 2005. The two bills are Senate Bill 404 (authored by Migden) and Senate Bill 826 (authored by Maldonado). If passed, these two bills will provide for an expedited teacher credentialing process in California for mid-career or retiring professionals with career expertise in their subject matter. Dr. Yvonne Pendleton (Acting Division Chief for Space Science and Astrobiology), representing only herself and not NASA, helped support these efforts through letters to the appropriate parties and will travel to Sacramento to support them at the next hurdle. Pendleton's education outreach experiences and new positions within NASA management have convinced her that a wonderful solution to both the dearth of science and math teachers in the public schools and the current excess of science and engineering talent within NASA equal an excellent opportunity to turn researchers into teachers in the coming years. However, current requirements for teaching credentials make it exceedingly difficult to become a public school teacher while a researcher is still actively employed. Furthermore, given the high level of expertise, the requirements are currently outdated for mid-level career and potential early retirement personnel. The new procedure to obtain a teaching credential will require:
1) a post-baccalaureate or graduate degree,
2) at least 5 years of professional experience in the candidate's primary subject area,
3)successful completion of a teacher performance assessment, and
4) participation in an induction program, which can be conducted in parallel to their teaching efforts.

Space Science and Astrobiology Division Highlights,
June 29, 2005

1. MARTE Team Achieves Field Test Milestone

The Mars Astrobiology Research and Technology Experiment (MARTE) led by Principle Investigator Dr. Carol Stoker (Code S), recently accomplished a major milestone by deploying and operating a robotic drill and science platform in the Santa Cruz mountains. This was the first deployment of the system into the field, and was an enormous success. The field test took place from June 9 - 17 near Bonnie Doon, California, at the RMC Cemex Rock Quarry. The test platform is a prototype for a robotic Mars drilling mission, and contains a drill system, core sample handling system, core inspection instruments and borehole inspection instruments all mounted upon a single support module that simulates a Mars surface lander. The drill, developed by Honeybee Robotics in Manhattan, NY is an automated, low power, fluid-less, core drilling system capable of achieving 10 meters of depth. The core sample handling system, developed by the University of Oklahoma, accepts the core from the drill into a multi-fingered clamp, cuts the core open with a facing saw, and then transports the core to science instruments that perform imaging and spectral analysis. The core sample handling system is also used to cut subsamples from the core, and crush the subsamples into powder for placement into life detection instruments. The crusher was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and is currently slated for the 2009 Mars Science Lander mission. The borehole inspection system was developed by the Centro de Astrobiologia in Madrid, Spain, and is a probe used to characterize the hole left when the drill is removed using boresighted panoramic and microscopic cameras, and a raman spectrometer. The field team included the leads of each subsystem. During the field test, the entire system was controlled through automation software developed at NASA Ames, and the resulting science data was transmitted via satellite link to a remote data storage computer located in Spain. The purpose of the field test was to run end-to-end tests to verify the equipment and software, gather operational timing information, work out methods for delivering aseptically acquired samples to life detection instrumentation, and refine field logistics and train the team in preparation for a four week simulation of a Mars drilling mission to be performed in southwestern Spain in September. Despite unseasonable torrential downpours that resulted in working in a tent in very muddy conditions, the MARTE team achieved all of their field test objectives. In 4 days of drilling operations, the robotic platform drilled 1.3 m of rock core with automated core inspection with the science instruments, sawing, subsampling, and crushing to obtain powdered samples, followed by inspection of the drill hole with BHIS instruments. Data sets obtained in the test will be used to train a science team to support the upcoming mission simulation in Spain.

The International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life re-elected David DesMarais to the ISSOL Council, and elected Chris McKay an ISSOL Fellow. Chris is one of only four Fellows selected in a three-year period. (Other past and Present Ames ISSOL Fellows are David DesMarais, Sherwood Chang, and Don DeVincenzi). ISSOL has also elected Rose Grymes as Secretary, so Ames has been highly recognized as an important contributor to this organization.

Space Science Division Highlights, July 27, 2005

The Center for Star Formation, a ten year old, world renowned group of theoreticians from NASA Ames, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Berkeley recently reconvened at NASA Ames under the direction of Dr. David Hollenbach. Tom Greene gave an invited talk on his recent work on a critical region of active stellar formation, ``Optical Spectroscopy of the Surface Population of the Rho Ophiuchi Molecular Cloud: The First Wave of Star Formation'' (B. A. WIlking, M. R. Meyer, J. G. Robinson, T. P. Greene 2005, AJ, Oct. Tom Greene has also written high impact papers, all accepted for publication in the last 3-6 months, containing fundamental results on the angular momenta of accreting protostars and the evolution of pre-planetary accretion disks. These problems are fundamental to the development of planetary systems. Tom Roellig won another NASA Team Achievement award certificate in the mail for his work on the Spitzer mission. This Is the 5th that he has received for various parts of this mission. He also served recently on the review board for the WISE (Wide-Field Infrared Space Explorer) mission PDR in Pasadena, representing science for the Integrated Independent Review Team that has been chartered for all the standard mission reviews for this project. Tom's work on the Spitzer Space Telescope Team has been invaluable to many researchers around the world. JPL has repeatedly recognized this, demonstrating the cross-Center collaboration whichh earned him the One NASA Peer Award for 2005. Darlene Lim (NRC post doctoral fellow) and Chris McKay are currently conducting an International collaboration with several academic partners to study the unusual freshwater microbialite structures of Pavilion Lake (British Columbia). These structures are of interest in terms of models of Precambrian reefs and may also be relevant to carbonate formation in ancient lakes on Mars. http://supercritical.civil.ubc.ca/~pavilion/ Jen Heldmann (NRC Post doctoral fellow) represented NASA Ames and the science ideas developd by a number of Ames researchers as possible components of the Lunar Lander Mission at a meeting held at Goddard on July 21. The meeting was well attended by APL, GSFC and other potential partners. Ames project leaders were also present and the Ames contribution was well received. Tori Hoehler and others in the Space Science Division (Bernstein, Pendleton, and Cruikshank) have been asked to serve on the Exhibit Planning Board for the California Academy of Sciences. The California Academy of Sciences is the oldest scientific institution in the West and houses one of the largest natural history museums in the world, along with aquarium and planetarium facilities. Currently housed in temporary facilities, CAS will open a newly remodeled, permanent facility in Golden Gate Park, with a target date in 2008. Specifically, Hoehler will serve as an astrobiology specialist in designing a permanent exhibit entitled "Earth and its Place in the Universe", which will comprise both dedicated floor space and content in planetarium shows. This activity builds on a partnership between CAS and Ames Research Center's NAI (NASA Astrobiology Institute) lead team, which developed an astrobiology exhibit for the temporary CAS facility. Hoehler's participation in the design activity for the permanent facility is directly supported by NASA Headquarters as an "astrobiology program support function". Visitation for the permanent CAS facility is expected to top 800,000 per year, with over 400,000 directly reached by educational programs, making this a lasting, high-impact public outreach venue for astrobiology. Dave Des Marais and Dale Cruikshank participated in the NASA Science Integration Team, chaired by Paul Hertz at HQ, and chaired the effort to link the Agency Vision statement to science goals, objectives and mission measurements to support the Vision theme "To find life beyond." Education Outreach: In the past week, Dale Cruikshank spoke to a group of teachers who applied for the teacher in space program; Tori Hoehler served as an instructor and interpretive guide at a one-week intensive teacher training workshop in the eastern Sierra mountains, the Yellowstone Resources and Issues Guide for 2005 was recently published which includes a chapter on thermophiles and astrobiology authored by the Ames NAI team. As the "textbook" for Yellowstone National Park, the Guide is used to train Park interpretive staff.

Last Updated: Aug 15, 2005	Home \| Site Map \| Feedback